A small space for thinking aloud. Some small thoughts, some big: some fleeting, some held dear.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Drugs macro and micro..

I'm pottering my way through the West Wing (again)- mid way through series two and the plot has DEA agents kidnapped (and their rescuers killed) in I think Columbia. Bartlet calls his policy aides in mid way through the crisis and reels off some statistics about the war on drugs. He concludes with 'just say no doesn't work'.

Today I did a bit of intentional mooching. I walked through the estate where the under 4's are out playing unsupervised, where the guy with the hood on the bike moved pretty quick when he saw me coming. I popped in the doctors, when I asked what can one change would make it different; I was told.. 'get them all jobs, and get them off drugs'. Just a few minutes earlier I had been talking to a lady: she started taking drugs in the sixties and has shot all her faculties and veins to pieces. She showed me the scars as she told me about her boyfriend who died tragically again with drug induced psychosis as a contributory factor.

Drugs kills people. They kill hope, they kill all that helps us connect with the people and the world around them. The lady I spoke to has been clean for years now. But she still bears the scars.

I find myself reflecting again.. that this is now the time for me to really practice what I preach. I believe in a God of resurrection. A God who restores a naked raging guy from the caves and sets him free. A God who can beat addiction, who urges us to pray for daily bread as he loves to provide. The challenge is, will I embody all I believe about Him, to see change micro and macro. Just saying no will not work.